12 Animal Behavior

After you have finished reading this chapter, you should be able to:
Discuss how behavioral adaptations aid an organism’s survival.
Distinguish between inborn and learned patterns of behavior.
Identify and explain the importance of social behavior in animals.

as a representative of the insect world, i have often wondered on what

man bases his claims to superiority. everything he knows he has had to
learn whereas insects are born knowing everything we need to know.
Don Marquis, the lives and times of archy and mehitabel
(Archy the cockroach)

Introduction
Many years ago, Japanese researchers began throwing sweet potatoes on
the beach for the macaque monkeys that lived on the island of Koshima.
Up until then, the monkeys were never observed on the beach. However,
they came out of the forest, walked to the beach, picked up the potatoes,
brushed off the sand, and ate them. Then, in 1953, one year after the
feeding began, one female—named Imo by the scientists—was seen car-
rying a piece of potato to the water. She dipped the potato in the water
and washed the sand off of it. Soon other monkeys who lived with Imo
were seen washing their potatoes, too. Adult male monkeys, who were
strangers to Imo’s troop, never learned to wash their potatoes. However,
younger monkeys who learned to wash their potatoes continued the habit
as they grew older. Today, all the monkeys wash their potatoes. Later, Imo
and other monkeys learned to use seawater to rinse other foods, to add the
flavor of salt to their food. They even learned to swim. All these behav-
iors were learned by animals that originally had never been seen on the
beach or anywhere near the water. (See Figure 12-1.)

254
 Figure 12-1
The macaque
monkeys of
Koshima Island
in Japan have
learned to wash
their food in the
salty water at the
beach. Here a
mother macaque
is washing her
baby.

What is behavior? How do animals learn behaviors? Are there some

behaviors that do not need to be learned? These and other questions will
be explored in this chapter.

■■ BEHAVIOR: HOMEOSTASIS AND EVOLUTION

Everything an organism does is its behavior. This includes finding a place

to live, finding food, avoiding predators, and mating and reproducing. It
even involves dying.
The purpose of animal behavior is to allow the organism to maintain
homeostasis, survive, and reproduce. Birds build nests and keep their eggs
warm until they hatch. (See Figure 12-2.) In Africa, huge herds of wilde-
beests migrate first northward and then southward each year, following
seasonal rains. When they are very young, discus fish swim around their
parents’ bodies and feed off a nutritious slime produced on the surfaces

Figure 12-2 Animal behaviors, such as

nest building, allow the organism to
maintain homeostasis and survive.
256 Maintaining a Dynamic Equilibrium

of their scales. Maintaining constant temperature, water balance, and

level of nutrition are all behaviors that control aspects of homeostasis.
Homeostasis requires that the conditions within an organism remain rel-
atively constant. This is a requirement for life. Organisms behave in a
wide variety of ways to maintain these conditions.
Honeybees lay eggs in individual wax cells that make up the structure
of the beehive. The eggs hatch and develop through larval and pupal
stages in the cells before they develop into adults. Sometimes the devel-
oping bees die in their individual cells. Some types of honeybees remove
young pupae that die in their cells. Other types of honeybees do not. How
has this particular behavior developed? It has evolved over time, like any
other adaptation that has survival value. Although requiring more effort,
removing dead pupae may have the survival value of keeping the beehive
free from disease. How have all other organisms developed the behaviors
they now have?
In Chapter 3, you learned that adaptations may be morphological,
physiological, or behavioral. The process of natural selection acts on
behavior just as it does on any physical or physiological characteristic.
Within a population of organisms, there are variations among individu-
als in appearance. There are also variations in how they show a particu-
lar behavior. The behavior may actually be determined by genetic traits
already present in the organism since birth. Those individuals whose
behavior makes them more likely to survive will pass on their genetic
traits to offspring. Others, with behavior that is not as well adapted to
survival, will be less likely to reproduce. In this way, certain behaviors—
like physical traits—are naturally selected. The behavior of a species of
organism will evolve just like other characteristics such as fur color and
body size do.

■■ SENSORY PERCEPTION

Behaving in an appropriate manner that maintains homeostasis and

increases one’s chances of survival depends on receiving accurate infor-
mation about the environment. Sense organs provide this information.
Receiving this information is called sensory perception.
Our eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and the surface of our skin act as sense
organs. You receive information about your environment through these
organs. Imagine what life would be like without these sense organs. You
would have no awareness of the world around you. Experiments have
been done on people who have been put in a completely dark room with
 Chapter 12 / Animal Behavior 257

no sound and no temperature changes. These individuals were unable to

remain in the room for very many hours. They quickly became agitated
and upset. Clearly, we need to receive information about the world
around us.
We also need to know about the conditions inside us. We depend on
internal sensors to keep track of body temperature, blood pressure, water
balance, and many metabolic activities. Without these internal sensors,
homeostasis could not be maintained.

Figure 12-3 Many snakes can “smell”

molecules in the air through special
Tongue organs in their mouth, which helps
them locate their prey.

Organisms show an amazing diversity of sense organs and sensory

abilities. Many snakes have organs in their mouth that “smell” molecules
LIVING ENVIRONMENT BIOLOGY, 2e/fig. 12-3 s/s
in the air that are gathered with their tongue. (See Figure 12-3.) Dogs are
able to hear sounds at a frequency much higher than the human ear can
hear. Elephants are able to hear sounds at a frequency much too low for
humans to hear. These low-frequency sounds can be heard by elephants
over extremely long distances. Fish have a series of tiny sense organs in a
row along the side of their body. These organs, called the lateral line, are
able to detect chemicals in the water, wave movements and vibrations,
and water temperature. (See Figure 12-4.) Sharks are able to detect elec-
trical signals from prey. Beluga whales are able to sense Earth’s magnetic
field. Despite the great variety of types of sensory perception in animals,

Lateral line

Figure 12-4 The lateral

line in fish detects
chemicals in the water,
wave movements and
vibrations, and water
temperature. Trout

LIVING ENVIRONMENT BIOLOGY, 2e/fig. 12-4 s/s

258 Maintaining a Dynamic Equilibrium

each type of stimulus from the environment excites only one type of sen-
sory receptor. The types of sensory receptors include:

◆ Mechanical receptors respond to mechanical pressure and can detect

motion, body position, touch, pressure, and sound. Mechanical recep-
tors are found in the skin, within muscles, and in the ears.
◆ Temperature receptors detect heat and cold. They are found both in
the skin and in the hypothalamus of the brain.
◆ Chemical receptors respond to specific chemicals. These are the recep-
tors of taste and smell; they also detect levels of gases and nutrients in
the blood.
◆ Photoreceptors, such as those in the eyes, respond to light.
◆ Pain receptors are stimulated by heat, pressure, and the chemicals
released by damaged tissues.

■■ THE BRAIN: THE ORGAN IN CHARGE

All behavior depends on the integration of sensory information with

appropriate behavioral responses. In vertebrates, the brain is the organ
responsible for this integration and control. The human brain is without
doubt the most complex, highly organized structure on Earth. Will any
person ever learn enough about the brain to be able to understand how
the brain itself works? This is a question that remains unanswered, so far.
The brain, made up of billions of interconnected neurons, has a mass
of only about 1.5 kilograms. However, it uses 25 percent of the body’s oxy-
gen supply. The brain can be divided into three major parts: the cerebrum;
the cerebellum; and the brain stem, or medulla oblongata. (See Figure 12-5.)
The cerebrum is the most highly developed part of the human brain.
The left side, or hemisphere, of the brain controls sensory and movement
functions of the right side of the body, and vice versa. Scientists have
mapped the outer surface of the cerebrum, the cerebral cortex, for sen-
sory and movement, or motor, functions. Sensory information from each
part of the body comes to a specific location on the cerebrum. The largest
portion of the sensory cortex receives information from the face and the
hands. The hands are much more sensitive than the toes, which have a
much smaller portion of the cerebral cortex assigned to them. Similarly,
the motor cortex consists of several regions, each of which controls move-
ments for a specific part of the body. The cerebrum is the area of the brain
that is responsible for thought processes and for the creativity we associ-
ate with humans.
 Chapter 12 / Animal Behavior 259

Reasoning, Control of movement Sensation

memory,
speech

Cerebrum

Hearing Sight

Cerebellum
Brain stem

Medulla Oblongata

Figure 12-5 The brain can be divided into three major parts:
cerebrum, cerebellum, and medulla oblongata.
LIVING ENVIRONMENT BIOLOGY, 2e/fig. 12-5 s/s

The cerebellum, below and toward the rear of the cerebrum, also
processes a vast amount of sensory information and coordinates body
movements. It processes such complex movements as bicycling, skating,
or dribbling a basketball. In the brain, information is processed by inter-
connected neurons. The greater the complexity of processing needed, the
greater the number of neurons that are interconnected. It is therefore log-
ical, although amazing, that one neuron in the cerebellum may receive
impulses from up to 80,000 other neurons!
The part of the brain that evolved most recently is the cerebrum. The
part that is the oldest and most similar to the brains of vertebrates such as
fish and amphibians is the brain stem. The lowest part of the brain stem,
or medulla oblongata, controls and coordinates involuntary activities
such as breathing, heart rate, swallowing, peristalsis, and blood pressure.

■■ BEHAVIORS THAT DO NOT NEED TO BE LEARNED

You step off the curb while talking with a friend. An enormous truck blasts
its horn, and you both leap back instantly, safely out of harm’s way. As
soon as you are back on the sidewalk, you become weak as you realize
how close you came to being an accident victim.
The behavior that just occurred is a reflex. You did not have to learn
it; you did not even have to think about it. A reflex happens so quickly
260 Maintaining a Dynamic Equilibrium

Thorn
(stimulus)
Branch of connecting
nerve cell to brain

Connecting
Sensory nerve cell
Skin nerve cell
(sense
organ)

Spinal cord
Motor nerve cell
Muscle
(responds by moving)

Figure 12-6 In a reflex, nerve impulses travel from the sensory receptors to the
central nervous system and directly back to an effector.

LIVING ENVIRONMENT BIOLOGY, 2e/fig. 12-6 s/s

because the nerve impulses travel the shortest distance possible, from the
sensory receptors that detect the stimulus to the central nervous system,
and directly back to an effector that produces the response. (See Figure
12-6.) For example, the automatic knee-jerk response tested by a physician
begins with a receptor, which detects when the knee is tapped. An
impulse travels from the knee to the spinal cord along a sensory neuron.
Immediately an impulse returns along a motor neuron to the leg muscle,
the effector. The leg moves, kicking upward. In the meantime, informa-
tion travels to the brain, telling it the knee has been tapped. Just as in the
example of jumping out of the way of a speeding truck, the awareness of
the knee-tap event occurs after the reflex response has already happened.
Reflex behaviors do not have to be learned. In terms of evolution,
reflex actions have been selected for since they help to ensure the survival
of an organism. Scientists have also observed a wide variety of more com-
plex behaviors in animals that are not learned. Animals are born with
these behaviors, also called instincts, which are a series of reflexes. All
animals’ instincts are inherited from their parents, just as their physical
characteristics are inherited. Because these behaviors do not change or
improve with repetition, they are called fixed action patterns. The suck-
ing of a newborn baby on a mother’s breast and the flick of a frog’s tongue
to catch a fly are both examples of fixed action patterns.
 Chapter 12 / Animal Behavior 261

Konrad Lorenz and Nikolaas Tinbergen were two European zoologists

who studied animal behavior and shared the Nobel Prize for their efforts.
The most famous example of a fixed action pattern described by Lorenz
and Tinbergen involved the greylag goose. The greylag goose makes its
nest on land. Whenever an egg rolls out of the goose’s nest, the goose
returns the egg with exactly the same series of movements. These move-
ments involve stretching its neck and twisting its head to the side in order
to roll the egg along the ground. (See Figure 12-7.) Sometimes the egg

Figure 12-7 The greylag

goose returns an egg to its
nest by way of a fixed action
pattern.
262 Maintaining a Dynamic Equilibrium

slips away, but the goose continues the same series of movements all the
way back to the nest, without the egg. The behavior is built in, fixed, and
cannot change.

Check Your Understanding

Why are inborn behaviors important to the survival of organisms?
How are they related to sensory perceptions?

■■ LEARNED BEHAVIOR

Much of animal behavior, including most of our own, is not fixed. It is

learned. Learned behavior changes over time as a result of experience.
Organisms such as honeybees and cockroaches, whose lives are relatively
short, seem to have little ability to learn. On the other hand, primates
with long life spans and complex brains develop a great deal of learned
behavior. In fact, much of what a primate does is learned through
experience.
Learned behavior can also be demonstrated in relatively simple organ-
isms. Habituation is one type of simple learned behavior. Through habit-
uation, an organism stops responding to a stimulus that it has learned is
unimportant, in order to not waste energy. A single-celled ameba will
move away from a bright light. However, if you repeatedly shine a bright
light on the ameba, it will stop trying to move away. It changes its behav-
ior because the steady bright light no longer represents a threat. Habitu-
ation has occurred. The same process happens in us whenever we learn to
ignore annoying noises that occur repeatedly. Out of necessity, many city
dwellers have become habituated to the repetitive, meaningless wailing
of car security alarms.
In the 1920s, the Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov performed a famous
series of experiments on the behavior of dogs. He noticed that a dog sali-
vates, or drools, when it sees food. Pavlov rang a bell at the same time as
he presented the dog with food. Of course the dog salivated. In time,
Pavlov rang the bell without offering the dog food. Amazingly, the dog
still produced saliva even though there was no food for it to eat. The dog
had learned to associate the signal—the ringing bell—with food. Pavlov
called the bell a conditioned stimulus and the production of saliva with-
out food a conditioned response.
Pets often display conditioned responses. Goldfish learn to associate
your hand moving near the water’s surface with your giving them food.
When they see your hand, the fish quickly swim to the top and begin
 Chapter 12 / Animal Behavior 263

Figure 12-8 Fish can develop

conditioned responses. Here carp
await food from visitors at a botanical
garden.

feeding. After only a few feedings, the fish learn to associate your hand
with food. Simply putting your hand near the tank brings the fish to the
surface, even without any food being present. (See Figure 12-8.)
How much of our behavior is learned through conditioning? Some
examples may offer clues to answer this question. Many people eat at
about the same times each day. As the days pass, they realize that they feel
most hungry at these “mealtimes.” The hunger has become a conditioned
response that is now associated with the time of day rather than with the
need, thought, or sight of food.
Fears can also develop through conditioning. For example, a child may
be repeatedly frightened by a neighbor’s dog jumping against their fence.
Years later, in another house, the child may again experience fear at the
sound of a fence shaking, even though this time it is only the wind.
Included among other types of learning is imprinting, which occurs
when an animal, such as a baby goose, follows the first moving object it
sees after birth. In nature, the first moving object a baby goose sees is usu-
ally its mother; but it may be you, if you are hatching the eggs. Lorenz, in
a series of famous photographs, leads a trail of baby geese that imprinted
on him soon after they hatched. (See Figure 12-9 on page 264.) Imitative
learning occurs when animals observe and learn from each other. The
macaque monkeys that learned to wash their food showed imitative
learning.
264 Maintaining a Dynamic Equilibrium

Figure 12-9 Konrad

Lorenz researched
imprinting in geese.

Habit formation is another type of learning. A habit is a common type

of behavior that results from repeating an action over and over again until
the action is done automatically. Try writing an entire paragraph without
dotting an i or crossing a t. You will find that it is hard not to make these
marks. Writing letters correctly is a habit that is hard to alter. To change
or break a habit takes a great deal of concentration. This is because you
are trying to learn a new behavior to replace an old behavior you have
learned so well that it occurs automatically. Learning to break a habit such
as smoking requires a great deal of determination, a strong desire to learn
the new habit of not smoking, and much praise and reward for doing so.

■■ SOCIAL BEHAVIOR

The vast majority of animals, from crayfish to frogs to tigers, live solitary
lives. Other than coming together for the purpose of reproduction and
perhaps caring for their offspring, each individual is on its own. Each ani-
mal is in a competition for survival, competing not only with other types
of organisms but also with other members of its own species.
However, some animals live in groups called societies. These animals
often share responsibilities for finding food, building a home, providing
protection for other individuals, and even reproduction. In these groups,
the animals depend on each other.
Certain insects, along with humans, have developed the most com-
plex societies in the animal kingdom. Termites, ants, and some species of
wasps and bees have highly structured societies. The honeybee society is
one of the best-known and probably the most-studied example.
A honeybee society, or colony, consists of 30,000 to 40,000 female
Figure 12-10
The members
of a honeybee
colony
communicate
by means of
pheromones and
visual signals.

worker bees and one queen. The colony may also include some males, or
drones. The worker bees live for about six weeks, first acting as nurses for
young bees. Next, they become houseworkers, taking care of the hive.
Finally, they act as food gatherers, flying out to collect nectar and pollen
from flowers. The queen bee’s only responsibility is to mate with male
drones, often from another colony, and lay eggs. (See Figure 12-10.)
As in any society, communication is important in a bee colony. One
way honeybees communicate with each other is through chemicals they
produce, known as pheromones. Pheromones are released into the air.
For example, the queen controls the worker bees in the colony by releas-
ing a pheromone that prevents workers from developing into other
queens.
Honeybees also communicate by using visual signals. The Austrian
biologist Karl von Frisch (who along with Tinbergen and Lorenz shared a
Nobel Prize in 1973) discovered that honeybees perform a very elaborate
dance that tells other worker bees in the hive about food they have found.
During the dance, the direction and speed the bee moves, the amount it
shakes its body, and how it buzzes while dancing all provide information
about a food source. The food’s direction and distance from the hive are
communicated in the dance. Other bees use this information to find the
food source.
An insect society is very structured. An individual’s position in the
society is determined from birth. A worker bee never gets to be the queen.
266 Maintaining a Dynamic Equilibrium

Inside the Mind of an Infant

What could be more fascinating than trying to learn about the mind of a
baby? During their first year, infants gain physical skills; they also take their
first steps in being able to think and to make sense of the world around
them. This field of study is called infant cognition. It includes the study of
the increasing abilities of infants to perceive, recognize, categorize, and
remember things in their environment.
In one research project, various patterns were shown to infants. (See
Figure 12-11.) By measuring the amount of time the infants looked at each
pattern, scientists were able to conclude that infants under 1 year of age
look longer at concentric forms (top row) than at non-concentric forms
(bottom row), and longer at curved lines than at straight lines.
Why? What do these results mean? What later developments occur in the
mind of an infant? These and many other questions are being asked and
examined by researchers studying infant cognition.

Figure 12-11

LIVING ENVIRONMENT BIOLOGY, 2e/fig. 12-11 s/s (rev. 10/13/03)

Drones remain useful until the queen has been fertilized; then they are
often driven from the hive. On the other hand, societies of vertebrates
are less structured and offer an individual a chance to change position.
You might say that in these societies there are more chances for “job
promotion.”
Chickens show one type of behavior commonly found in vertebrate
societies. This behavior determines who is the most important member of
a particular society. With chickens, it is called the pecking order. In a
flock of hens, one hen is the most dominant. This hen is able to peck at
all the other hens. The second hen is able to peck at all the other hens
 Chapter 12 / Animal Behavior 267

except the first one. A third hen can peck at all the others except the first
two, and so on down to the lowest hen, who is pecked at by all the other
hens and has no hen below it to peck. Not a very good position to be in
at all! The pecking order determines which hens get to eat first and which
hens are able to use the best sites for making a nest. The feathers of hens
at the top of the pecking order are always clean; these hens are always
well groomed. They move around the yard with confidence. The hens at
the bottom of the pecking order often have dirty feathers, are not well
groomed, and often appear nervous or frightened. Other animals, such as
wolves, also have highly structured societies similar to that of chickens.
Many vertebrates have another social behavior, one that involves
defending the area in which the animals live. The defended area is called
a territory. Territorial animals, those that defend their territories, include
many bird species, wolves, deer, monkeys, crabs, and fish. To define their
territory, many birds sing out a warning song and even attack other birds
that cross the borders into their area. It is interesting to note that a bird
will prevent other birds of the same species from entering its territory
while ignoring other kinds of birds. This is because it competes with mem-
bers of its own species for the same types of food and nesting sites.
Pets can also be observed displaying territorial behavior. Even cats or
dogs, which spend most or all of their time inside their owners’ homes,
can become very upset when another cat or dog, a stranger, dares to
appear outside the window of their territory. The question that needs to
be asked is: Should humans be added to the list of territorial animals? The
number of military conflicts that have occurred as people fight over land
may suggest that the answer is yes.
Other forms of social behavior include schooling, in which animals
travel together in groups, and migration, in which groups of animals
travel long distances, often during specific times of the year. Dolphins
and whales are very social animals. These marine mammals form groups,
or pods, that range in size from about a dozen animals to several hun-
dred individuals. Dolphins migrate over large areas in search of food.
Some whales migrate thousands of kilometers to reach their feeding
grounds. (See Figure 12-12 on page 268.) Fish, such as tuna, and birds,
such as geese and ducks, are also migratory. Tuna swim for months around
the Atlantic Ocean, traveling thousands of kilometers from one seasonal
feeding place to another. In the northern hemisphere, geese and ducks fly
from north to south every winter, and back again the next spring. These
migrations often cover thousands of kilometers.
Social behaviors are generally not learned. Animals are born with these
268 Maintaining a Dynamic Equilibrium

Arctic
Ocean

Alaska
Iceland
Canada

USA

Caribbean Sea

South
America

Figure 12-12 The

migration routes of two
whale species between Gray whale
their feeding and
Humpback whale
breeding grounds.

behaviors. Insect societies, pecking orders, territoriality, schooling, and

LIVING
migration are usually seen asENVIRONMENT
characteristicBIOLOGY, 2e/fig.
behaviors 12-12 s/sspecies.
of certain (rev. 10/13/03)
All
members of a species have the characteristic behavior of the species.
While the behavior has not been learned, it has evolved along with other
characteristics. Therefore, the conclusion is that behavior, just like any
other characteristic that has been selected naturally, provides the species
with some survival advantage.

■■ THE HUMAN MIND: WHO ARE YOU?

The human brain is the only structure on Earth that tries to understand
itself. Are you who you are because of this mass of tissue, your brain? Is
your brain, that vast collection of neurons and neurotransmitters, and
other brain tissues, the same as your mind? These questions are certainly
difficult to answer. However, biologists are confident that we will some-
day understand a great deal about perception, knowledge, learning, mem-
ory, and consciousness by understanding the structure and function of
the brain.
A great deal is already understood about individual neurons, their
structure and function, and how they are connected to each other. How-
 Chapter 12 / Animal Behavior 269

ever, it seems that much of how the brain works depends on large net-
works of neurons that act together as systems. These systems are very
complex and are not well understood. There are so many things the
human brain can do. One type of thinking involves being able to group,
or categorize, things. For example, we recognize that a saw, a hammer,
and a screwdriver are all tools, and that a sweater does not belong in this
group. It is believed that a network of neurons is responsible for allowing
us to place the correct objects in a group. Another kind of brain activity
occurs when you continue to look at an object in front of you while you
turn your head to the side. Keeping your eyes focused on the object while
your head turns requires very complex activity within your brain and
within the neurons that connect your eyes to your brain. It has been sug-
gested that understanding how very complicated computers function
could help us understand how the human brain functions. However, is
anyone intelligent enough to build a computer as complex as the brain?
Not up to now.
Another puzzling question concerns the brain and sleep. Becoming
tired and falling asleep is a basic part of living. But why? Neurons in the
brain are very busy even while we sleep, almost as busy as when we are
awake. While sleeping, our brains are really not at rest. And yet most peo-
ple like to sleep. There must be a good reason why the brain needs sleep.
This is another question yet to be answered.
Finally, what about memory? You hear a song, and suddenly you
remember where you were that summer long ago when you first heard the
song, and whom you were with. You also remember all those feelings of
that time long ago, when that song was important to you. How is this
memory stored in your brain? Does it exist in a certain place within the
brain? Is the memory made up of organic molecules that are now stored
in your brain? Does the memory consist of special connections of neurons
in particular patterns?
Sometimes it seems as if there are more questions than answers in
understanding the brain and the human mind. How exciting it is to be
learning the answers as science explores this fascinating area of research.
 LABORATORY INVESTIGATION 12
How Do We Learn?

INTRODUCTION
Learning is a complex process in all organisms. We can begin to under-
stand the process of learning by identifying some of the methods by
which humans learn. They are as follows:
◆ Repetition—observing and copying the actions of others
◆ Trial and error—repeating the efforts until a solution is found
◆ Memorization—a way to increase our body of knowledge
◆ Reasoning—drawing conclusions based on past experiences
In this investigation, you will complete various tasks in order to study
these methods of learning.

MATERIALS
Letter “L” puzzle pieces in an envelope, word lists A, B, and C on separate
pieces of paper (from the Teacher’s Manual)

PROCEDURE
Part A: The Letter “L” Puzzle
1. Work in pairs. Take an envelope that contains the pieces of the letter
L puzzle.
2. One member of the pair acts as a timekeeper. That person times how
long it takes for the other person to solve the puzzle. The solver begins
to arrange the puzzle pieces into the letter L when the timer says “go.”
The timer looks away from the person solving the puzzle.
3. Reverse roles and repeat step 2.
4. Repeat this process until each person has solved the puzzle three times.
5. Prepare a bar graph that shows the elapsed time of each trial on the
vertical axis and the trial number on the horizontal axis.

270 Maintaining a Dynamic Equilibrium

Part B: Word Lists
1. Work by yourself. Carefully read through list A three times. Put this list
away. On a blank piece of paper, write down all the items on the list
that you can remember. Try to write the words in the same order as
they appeared on the list.
2. Repeat step 1 with list B.
3. Repeat step 1 with list C.
4. Determine your score for each list. Count one point for each item in
the list you remembered. For the purposes of calculating your score,
the order of the items recalled does not count.

INTERPRETIVE QUESTIONS
1. What evidence was there that learning occurred in the activities in
parts A and B? What were the primary methods by which learning
occurred in each of these activities?
2. Discuss how the learning activities in this investigation are related to
the skills and habits needed to become a successful learner.

Chapter 12 / Animal Behavior 271

272 Maintaining a Dynamic Equilibrium

■■ CHAPTER 12 REVIEW

Answer these questions on a separate sheet of paper.

VOCABULARY
The following list contains all of the boldfaced terms in this chapter. Define
each of these terms in your own words.

behavior, cerebellum, cerebral cortex, cerebrum, conditioned response,

conditioned stimulus, fixed action patterns, habit, habituation,
imitative learning, imprinting, medulla oblongata, migration, pecking
order, pheromones, reflex, schooling, sensory perception, societies,
territory

PART A—MULTIPLE CHOICE

Choose the response that best completes the sentence or answers the question.

1. Behavior a. is shaped by natural selection b. can be learned

c. can be inborn d. all of these.
2. The largest part of the sensory cortex receives information from the
a. face and neck b. torso c. arms and legs d. hands and face.
3. While staying overnight with a cousin in a busy city, you are kept
awake by the noise of traffic. But your cousin can sleep due to
a. sensory perception b. fixed action patterns c. habituation
d. imprinting.
4. Which of these is not an example of a sensory receptor?
a. the roof of a snake’s mouth b. the hairs on your head
c. a dog’s nose d. a fish’s lateral line
5. Although baby California condors are raised by humans, they are
fed with a condor hand puppet so they will not a. imprint on
humans b. engage in imitative learning c. form bad habits
d. form a conditioned stimulus.
6. In humans, mechanical receptors are involved in the sensing of
a. sound b. temperature c. light d. chemicals.
7. Which is an example of social behavior? a. People live in
communities. b. Birds migrate toward the equator during the
winter. c. Sardines swim in large schools. d. All of these.
8. The part of the brain that evolved most recently is the
a. medulla oblongata b. pons c. cerebellum d. cerebrum.
9. If your tropical fish cluster around the top of the tank when you
draw near, they are showing a a. conditioned response b. fixed
action pattern c. result of imprinting d. pecking order.
 Chapter 12 / Animal Behavior 273

10. A reflex a. is a learned behavior b. may not involve the brain

c. is a conditioned response d. is imitative learning.
11. How much of the human body’s oxygen supply is used by the
brain? a. 1 percent b. 5 percent c. 25 percent d. 50 percent
12. Which symptom might you see in a person who has had a stroke
on the right side of the brain? a. difficulty moving the right
hand b. paralysis on the left side of the face c. difficulty
recognizing the meaning of words d. all of these
13. On a playground, young children never tease the most popular kid,
only the most popular kid can tease the second-most popular kid,
and everyone teases the least popular kid. This behavior is an
example of a. a conditioned stimulus b. imprinting
c. habituation d. a pecking order.
14. In Pavlov’s famous experiment, a ringing bell was
a. a conditioned stimulus b. a conditioned response c. a fixed
action pattern d. habituation.
15. The best explanation for a normally calm dog growling and
running around frantically when a stranger or another dog enters
the front yard is a. habituation b. territoriality c. imprinting
d. fixed action patterns.

PART B—CONSTRUCTED RESPONSE

Use the information in the chapter to respond to these items.

16. What is the structure shown in the

A
diagram? Identify the parts labeled
A through E and briefly describe
their functions.
17. Predict what would happen if part
D were damaged in an accident.
18. Describe what happens in the body C
in the knee-jerk reflex.
19. Why is it very difficult to D
B
understand how the human mind E

works?
20. Crayfish have an organ called a statocyst that consists of a granule
inside a chamber lined with tinyLIVING
hairs.ENVIRONMENT
If the granule is replaced
BIOLOGY, 2e/fig.by
12-Q16 s/s
a tiny piece of iron, and a magnet is held over the crayfish, the
crayfish will flip onto its back. Explain the crayfish’s behavior.
274 Maintaining a Dynamic Equilibrium

PART C—READING COMPREHENSION

Base your answers to questions 21 through 23 on the information below and
on your knowledge of biology. Source: Science News (March 15, 2003): vol.
163, p. 173.

Brain Training Aids Kids with Dyslexia

A reading-improvement course for children with dyslexia appears to
go to their heads.
After completing the course, 20 grade-schoolers diagnosed with this
reading disorder not only improved their speech and reading skills, but
showed signs of increased activity in key brain areas as they read, accord-
ing to a study in the Mar. 4 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sci-
ences.
The children with dyslexia and another 12 kids with no reading prob-
lems, all ages 8 to 12, performed daily tasks on a computer for nearly 1
month.
The children were asked to match speech sounds to written conso-
nants and vowels, and they practiced related skills. Before and after the
course, the researchers used a functional-magnetic-resonance-imaging
scanner to measure blood-flow changes throughout each child’s brain
that were uniquely linked to the identification of rhyming letters. This
task taps into the ability to decode sounds associated with different let-
ters, a crucial element of reading.
After training, only children with dyslexia exhibited substantial gains
in reading and speech comprehension as well as blood-flow surges—a
sign of increased cell activity—in several brain areas previously impli-
cated in reading, report Elise Temple of Cornell University and her
coworkers. The same children displayed elevated brain activity in atten-
tion and memory areas that probably contributed to their reading
improvement, the researchers say.
It will take more research to determine how long the course’s effects
on brain function last. Moreover, Temple acknowledges, it’s not known
whether or to what extent other literacy programs influence the brains
of kids with dyslexia. Two of Temple’s colleagues designed the training
program and have a financial interest in it.

21. State what developments, in addition to improved reading,

occurred in the children after completion of the reading
improvement course.
22. Explain the tasks given to the children, as well as the task linked to
the area of the brain being studied, that were related to reading.
23. Describe two conclusions about the research that could not be
made without further study.